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''Shades of Deep Purple'' is the debut studio album by the English rock band Deep Purple, released in July 1968 on Tetragrammaton in the United States and in September 1968 on Parlophone in the United Kingdom. The band, initially called Roundabout, was the idea of former Searchers drummer Chris Curtis, who recruited Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore before leaving the project. The Mk. I line-up of the band was completed by vocalist/frontman Rod Evans, along with bassist Nick Simper and drummer Ian Paice, in March 1968. After about two months of rehearsals, ''Shades of Deep Purple'' was recorded in only three days in May 1968 and contains four original songs and four covers, thoroughly rearranged to include classical interludes and sound more psychedelic. Stylistically the music is close to psychedelic rock and progressive rock, two genres with an ever growing audience in the late 60s. The album was not well received in the UK, where it sold very little and did not chart. In the US, on the other hand, it was a success and the single "Hush", an energetic rock track originally written by Joe South, became very popular at the time, reaching number 4 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. The good sales of the album and the intense radio play of the single contributed largely to the attention Deep Purple would get in their early US tours and also during the 70s. Modern reviews of the album are generally positive and consider ''Shades of Deep Purple'' an important piece in the history of Deep Purple. ==Background== When Deep Purple's first line-up came together in 1967, there was a moment of transition for the British music scene. Beat was still popular, especially in dance halls and outside the capital, but the tastes of young people buying records and filling up the clubs was rapidly changing in favour of blues rock, progressive rock and psychedelic rock. New bands like The Moody Blues, Procol Harum, and The Nice were pioneers in combining classical music with rock, using complex and daring arrangements.〔 At the same time, psychedelia was making strides in the hedonistic swinging London society, where bands like Pink Floyd, The Pretty Things, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Traffic and Cream experimented with different forms of drug-induced rock music, in line with the hippie subculture coming from the USA. Many well-known acts, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who, were influenced by the changing feel and added many elements of progressive and psychedelic rock to their albums of that period. During this time of great creativity for the British musical scene in the summer of 1967, Chris Curtis, former drummer of the beat band The Searchers, contacted London businessman Tony Edwards to find financing for a new group he was putting together, to be called Roundabout.〔CD Booklet: p.4〕 The name meant that the group would contain a revolving cast of non-permanent members getting on and off the stage like a musical roundabout, with only Curtis as mainstay and singer.〔 Impressed with the plan, Edwards agreed to finance and manage the venture with two business partners, Ron Hire and John Coletta, and the three of them founded Hire-Edwards-Coletta (HEC) Enterprises.〔〔Thompson: p.21〕 In September 1967, the first successful Roundabout recruitment was Curtis' flatmate, the classically trained Hammond organ player Jon Lord; he had most notably played with The Artwoods, a band led by Art Wood, brother of future Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, and featuring Keef Hartley.〔Thompson: p.24〕 At that time, Lord was playing in a band backing the successful pop vocalists The Flower Pot Men called The Garden, which included also bassist Nick Simper and drummer Carlo Little.〔Thompson: p.26〕 Simper and Little were alerted by Lord of the Roundabout project and remained in standby for an eventual involvement.〔Thompson: p.27〕 They recommended to Lord the guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, whose playing Chris Curtis had appreciated when his band The Searchers had played at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany.〔Bloom: p.97〕 Blackmore had been a member of The Outlaws and had played as session and live musician with many beat, pop and rock acts,〔Bloom: pp. 30–38〕 including Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages,〔Bloom: p.27〕 where he had met Little. Curtis contacted Blackmore to audition for the new group and persuaded him to move from Hamburg, where he was hanging out in local clubs.〔Bloom: pp. 93–96〕 The guitarist came back to England for good to join the group in December 1967.〔 Meanwhile, Curtis' erratic behaviour and his sudden loss of interest in the project he had started slowed down any development,〔 forcing his financiers, HEC Enterprises, to drop him and entrust Lord and Blackmore with the task of filling out the rest of the band.〔〔Thompson: p.28〕 Lord signed up as bassist his friend Simper, whose fame at the time came from his membership in the rock and roll group Johnny Kidd & The Pirates and for having survived the car crash in 1966 that killed Kidd.〔Thompson: p.14〕 The line-up of Roundabout was completed by drummer Bobby Woodman, recruited by Blackmore.〔 Dave Curtiss, an acquaintance of Woodman, was at first considered as singer, but he left to fulfill previous commitments.〔 According to Simper, Ian Gillan, the singer of the band Episode Six, was also contacted for an audition, but declined the offer.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Shades of Deep Purple」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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